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Getting Lost in Shanghai – Joe Thor

My experience in Shanghai is one that I will never forget. The most rewarding part of the program was the new people I got to work with, interact with, and experience China with. Our group had about a dozen students from USD and a dozen from the Amsterdam School of business. With only knowing two of them, I got to meet and become friends with so many wonderful people from different backgrounds and cultures. I was fortunate enough to be placed in a multinational consulting group, which had 4 students from USD and 3 from ABS.

We had a very diverse group from all over the world. On our team, we had students from Vietnam, Netherlands, Ukraine, India, and the US. This diversity really helped us each bring in fresh ideas. That is one of the things I enjoyed the most about the consulting project. At my full-time job in San Diego, most of the people have similar backgrounds and similar paths taken to get to where they are. In Shanghai, we all had completely different paths with different experiences, and that helped shape our project.

Top floor of the Hyatt

Aside from the work, exploring the city and “getting lost” with people whom I didn’t even know a week prior was a fantastic experience. I got to eat local Chinese food in places completely unknown to most tourists, walk around the city, pretend I was living like a local, and experience some of the nightlife that the city had to offer. China isn’t like most countries where it’s relatively easy to get around and communicate with the locals, so being able to struggle during often common day-to-day life activities was an adventure of its own. I even had the opportunity to travel two hours outside Shanghai and visit a water city which we had to get to by using three modes of transportation (High-Speed Train, Metro, Local Bus). In the end, I met lifelong friends, dipped my toe in the consulting world, got to eat like the locals, and had the chance to wander around a massive city.

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The Ahlers Center for International Business at the University of San Diego is one of the few privately endowed centers for international business in the world, providing an array of opportunities for USD students and faculty as well as the business community.